Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
there, then one down to Bombay. Three weeks and one day from now - that was
how I would arrange the flight when I got to Delhi. But should I now return to base
camp instead? I decided to keep going; I still had the flights to organise and the
bureaucracy to clear.
'You must stay. You can see festival. It is not allowed for a foreigner. You stay in
my house,' pleaded Sher Singh.
After the second chang it was tempting, but I left. On the way down the last of
the helter-skelter paths to the road, two girls stopped me. The prettier one ges-
tured and spoke encouragingly before opening her robes to reveal her shining
brown body. I looked away, and shrugged my shoulders; I had just come from the
Nanda Devi Sanctuary and had been in the presence of a real goddess. I muttered
'
Angrez
, English,' and ran on down the path.
When the others eventually reached Delhi, Voytek was furious with me.
'You just left us there with little food for nearly two weeks. What were you think-
ing?'
I explained again why I carried on to Delhi, and the logic. Alex got it immedi-
ately, and everyone calmed down when they realised that I'd secured flights for us
in just three days time, the only seats available for a month. My calculation in Lata
with the help of a glass of chang was exactly right.
We had a day buying rugs and other trinkets to take home. K. T. took us to his
parents' home and we told them of K. T.'s excellent work. He had been more than
an LO. He had been a member of the team, humping loads and doing his share of
the cooking. Later that afternoon, K. T. took us to the Presidential Hotel where we
could order 'special tea' - beer that came in teapots. Public drinking was against
the law in Mr Desai's India. That night, amidst a slight alcoholic haze, we loaded
endless Polish barrels into taxis and said farewell to him. We just managed to get
everything aboard the overnight air-conditioned train to Bombay.
Alex and I explored the city for a day while the Poles did more last minute shop-
ping to fill their orders from Warsaw, and then we were on our LOT flight back.
We were greeted as heroes. Radio and television interviews followed. Alex was the
media's darling. Arriving just in time to go on air live and take his place in the
chair, Alex was asked by the TV interviewer:
'Was it very hard to organise and do this amazing thing?'
'Yes, we had so much to drink at dinner tonight that finding this studio was in-
credibly difficult.'
As with all big climbs in the Himalaya, the experience was strongly felt but out-
wardly ephemeral. At home a general feeling of euphoria lasted for a few weeks.
But it was impossible to explain to those who didn't climb so it became internal-
